What happens to unclaimed baggage found at airports? You might not be happy to hear this, but it goes up for auction.

If your luggage languishes in an airport’s lost and found office long enough (generally from 60 days to six months, depending on the airport), it will be sold to the highest bidder. And as we see on the Travel Channel series Baggage Battles, which airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. EST, there is serious money to be made in lost luggage.

Baggage Battles takes its viewers to airport auctions around the world, as well as to freight and shipping auctions and even police auctions. In a recent episode shot at the Miami International Airport, Mark Meyer, one of the auction specialists featured on the show, bid about $3,500 for a few small bags filled with what turned out to be jewelry. He later sold the lot for $10,000. “That was my best find yet,” says Meyer, a 25-year-old from Long Island, who makes his living buying items at auctions worldwide and then selling the items online and at Nifty Thrifty, his thrift store in West Babylon, New York.

Meyer has never lost his own luggage, though he did recently sweat it out on a two-hour flight when he realized that he had tucked $5,000 in cash into the outside pocket of one of his checked bags. “I never understood how people lost or checked items that were really dear to them or just valuable until I did it myself,” Meyer says. “That’s how people make these mistakes, and that’s how I made mine.”

Meyer lucked out. He picked up his bag at the baggage claim after he got off his flight, and the money was still in the pocket. But what if his bag hadn’t been clearly identifiable, had wound up on the wrong flight, and the airline couldn’t track him down to return it? He wouldn’t have had such a happy ending.

His bag could have very well ended up at an airline auction.

Meyer is continually surprised that people don’t make more of an effort to ensure their bags are identifiable when they travel. “I tell everybody—tag it on the inside, and tag it on the outside,” he says, noting, “The airports will try to get your bag back to you.”

But too many people make it impossible for airlines to return their lost luggage. Meyer says that he has bought countless suitcases with built-in identification tags that were left blank. “It only takes five minutes to fill them out,” he notes.

Not that Meyer should care whether you fill out your ID tag because your loss is his gain.

Since graduating three years ago from the State University of New York, where he majored in finance, Meyer has been traveling the auction circuit, buying baggage packed with everything from electronics to jewelry. He generally pays somewhere between $100 and a few hundred dollars for a suitcase in the hopes of at least doubling or tripling his money. And he apparently makes a good living at it, noting, “I have a bumper sticker, and it reads: I don’t participate in the recession.”

Although Meyer is a professional buyer and seller (he got involved in sales as a teen), he says anyone can attend airport and other auctions where he does business because they are open to the public. Notices are posted online and in newspapers, and you can also check with your local airport to find out if and when an unclaimed baggage auction is scheduled. “I would welcome anybody to come, but just don’t come and bid against me,” Meyer cracks.

Want to try your luck at unclaimed baggage auctions? Here are a few tricks of the trade from the expert:

Don’t think you’re going to be an overnight success.

It takes time to become a strong bidder and to set up an infrastructure through which to sell the valuables you acquire. “It’s like everything else in life. The longer you do it, the better you get at it,” Meyer says. “I don’t show up at a Mets training center thinking I’m going to be their all-star my first year.”

Inspect baggage before you bid on it.

Auction attendees aren’t allowed to open the luggage that will go up for sale, but they can take a look at it prior to the start of bidding. Meyer stresses that you never know what you’re going to get for sure unless you happen to have a crystal ball, but you can make assumptions based on the brand, size and condition of a suitcase. “Rich people generally travel in style,” he says, “and carry-ons yield better treasures than checked bags.” Still, no one has a crystal ball, and no matter how good your instinct is, it will fail you at times, and you will waste money on bags that are worthless.

Guys, brush up on fashion

It pays to know what’s what when it comes to jewelry and handbags because some auctions place lost jewelry and handbags into lots contained in see-through plastic bags. If you have a good eye and can recognize a label, you’ll have more of a sense of what a particular bag might be worth. “I’m a straight guy that knows how to pick out David Yurman jewelry, Coach and Gucci bags,” Meyer boasts.